Mass364? The Streak Ends

As I've posted previously, I've been on a project -- a religious pilgrimage of sorts -- to attend Mass every day this year. (Mass365). Since December 31, 2008 I've attended Mass every single day. (Actually, come to think of it -- last weekend I attended Mass at least THREE times. Hmmm.) Well the streak (if I can refer to the project in such a non-serious and profane manner) has come to an end. I did not get to Mass today at all. It wasn't for lack of trying. Or simple laziness -- though I probably could've planned a bit better. You see, I spent nearly all day at the Church of Madelene helping my wife with her Pre-Cana class and conducting two of the several presentations to the attendees. That took my time from early morning until nearly 5 o'clock. And since we had to be in Owasso for my youngest son's Cub Scout pack's Blue and Gold Banquet at 5:30 p.m., I ended up in a quandary. Dropping the family off at the Lutheran church where the banquet was beginning, I high-tailed it north toward Collinsville's St. Therese' of Lisieux shrine for what I thought was a 5:30 p.m. Mass. On the way up US 169, I called the parish only to find out that the Mass had started at 5 p.m. -- not 5:30 as previously thought. That meant that I would not arrive until nearly 5:45 p.m., and surely the Mass would be over by that time. I could've made it back to North Tulsa for the Byzantine rite which began at 6 p.m., but that would've meant missing Cam's Blue and Gold entirely. What to do? I thought about it, but the more I thought of it, the more I decided that Jesus would rather me sacrifice my project for the sake of my son's banquet. After all, the 365 days of Mass was probably more a testament to my tendency toward OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) tendencies, than true piety truth be told. In the end, the banquet was nice (though those faux-Native American pagan "ceremonies" always creep me out a little). Sigh. Lord have mercy on me. Oh well ... beginning tomorrow? Mass 364! Technically, I've still been to mass at least once per day, anyway. Watch this space for more shocking revelations of personal failure!

Mass365: Ash Wednesday

And so it begins - Ash Wednesday, the first day of our Lenten season of fasting and penance. On this day (and Good Friday also) Roman Catholics 14 through 60 are obliged under pain of sin to fast and abstain from meat.

Ash Wednesday is also the day each year when Catholics receive the mark of Jesus Christ - a cross - on their foreheads, causing their non-Catholic friends and colleagues to do double-takes all day long. The usual greeting begins, "Did you know you've got something on your ....?" (You'd think you'd get used to it, but after a short dozen years as a Catholic, I haven't.)

Contrary to common opinion, although the fast and abstinence are mandatory, Mass attendance is not this day, i.e., it's not a holy day of obligation like Easter and Christmas. That doesn't stop millions upon millions who do not normally attend Mass during the week from showing up this day.

That was certainly the case today at Holy Family Cathedral, where Mass was celebrated by our wonderful orthodox bishop His Excellency Edward Slattery. The cathedral was overflowing -- in fact, there was literally no room to add anyone else. I've only seen it that full one other time -- when the monks at Clear Creek were there for Solemn Vespers a couple of years ago.

In addition to the beautiful liturgy -- full of the highest, and most solemn hymns of the Church -- Bishop Slattery surprised me by performing the Mass "ad orientem" (literally "to the East") -- the traditional way of facing the altar instead of the congregation. I'd noticed when I came in that the free-standing altar where the New Mass is normally celebrated, was covered with special linens and set up with the traditional six beeswax candles -- a throwback to the pre-Vatican II rubrics of the Mass -- and wondered whether this meant the Mass would be celebrated ad orientem. ("Can it be?" I thought to myself.) Yes, it was. And it was very moving and dignified.

I'm sure that not everyone there understood what this meant, but I did and I thank God for the opportunity to see this solemn celebration conducted with such dignity and grace as it should be. (Deo gratias.) I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but once more I am forced by charity to acknowledge what a wonderful bishop we have (and thanks also to Msgr. Patrick Brankin - who was no doubt instrumental in arranging this.) We are fortunate beyond measure here in the Diocese of Tulsa.

Mass365

So it was New Year's Eve and we were at Mass at the Church of the Madelene for Mass. I had been thinking about New Year's resolutions (see my earlier "Ten Resolutions" post) and then it came to me: how wonderful it would be to go to Mass every day in the new year -- 365 days of Mass. As a sometimes traditionalist Catholic, I have in the past been given over to a certain critical view of the state of the Catholic church. To be sure, that criticism has been moderated in recent years - partly because I began to go to daily Mass (not every day) at the Novus Ordo mass downtown, close to my law office. It was the experience of praying and worshiping with a group of obviously holy people -- daily Mass attendees are there, of course, because they want to be -- that began to change my theretofore Pharisaical view of the new Mass. These people, the same ones over and over again, seemed oblivious to the many obvious (to me, anyway) deficiencies of the Novus Ordo. They just seemed to want to be there and receive Christ. Over time, that experience had a wonderfully moderating effect on me. No longer did I immediately assume that my fellow Catholics who attended the Novus Ordo were stupid or ignorant of the important issues of the Church, and I eventually came to realize that people who attend the new Mass were not necessarily irreligious. Clearly they were not lacking in piety. Their good example thus brought me back to the realization of the holy effect of the Sacrifice of the Mass -- whether it is conducting in English or Latin. Anyway, it was against this backdrop that I found myself at Mass New Year's Eve, and inspiration struck. How interesting would it be to chronicle the effect of going to Mass for 365 days in a row - an entire year of daily Mass. I'd never attempted anything like it before - in fact, I was on a roll if I could make it two days in row. Later the additional idea occurred of blogging about the experience, and still later - actually going to Mass at every parish in the Diocese of Tulsa. And so that's what I've been doing ever since. This is obviously an introductory post, but watch this space for discussion of what I found at Madelene, at Holy Family Cathedral, and at St. Joseph's Vietnamese Catholic Church -- all in Tulsa proper. I've got a good feeling about this project. Join me as I experience the sacrifice of the Mass every day this year. This is going to be good.